“Busyness is a consciousness killer. Busyness is a creativity killer. Busyness is a connection killer. Most important, busyness is a credibility killer.

I find that people are very busy looking outside of themselves for the next thing that’s going to propel them as an entrepreneur, when, in fact, the answer is inside themselves: Stop being busy. Stop filling your time with activity, with tasks. Work on being present instead.”

And so when I really think about it I have to admit that I have been working as a lazy person. A busy lazy person, but lazy nonetheless!

So what’s the answer?

How do you go from being a busy self-employed freelancer to being a creative and conscious entrepreneur?

I don’t know because I’m just figuring this out myself. But here’s what I plan to do differently in light of this:

Quit Making Long To-Do Lists: I’m a recovering time management and productivity junkie. I have an unhealthy obsession with productivity apps and systems and one of my gateway drugs into that world are “long to-do lists.” So I just say no to them these days.

Focus On My 3 MITs: Since I have forsaken the long to-do lists that always make me feel guilty because they never get done, I’m free to focus on the 3 most important things I should do today. I spend time every morning thinking about what would make the biggest impact on my life and business. And then I block out 3–4 hours to focus on those. I usually work on my MITs until lunch and then after lunch I do the “to-do list” tasks.

Quit Saying I’m So Busy: Whenever someone asks me how things are going I realized one of my default responses is, “Oh, good, been super busy but it’s good.” I’m done with that stupid catch phrase! Words have power and I can think of a lot better affirmations to say than “I, Josh Monen, am super busy.”